UFO talks

UFO TALKS / HOW TO CATCH A UFO is an imaginary event to discuss the current state of UFO discourse, that materialises itself in photography and other forms of visual culture.

What do images tell about us? Us as individuals, and as a part of community and society?

Why are UFOs regarded as taboo? When something is a taboo, what does it tell about us as a society?

What are the narratives dominating this discussion? Based on visual evidence, how this topic is handled in public domain? (newspapers, online articles, artist work etc)

From a visual culture standpoint,
how we talk/discuss/create content regarding this topic says a lot about us as a society.

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Other suggestions for venues:
TENT
Showroom MAMA
Witte de With Contemporary Art Center
Het Nieuwe Instituut - Thursday Night Live?
Kunsthal
(professional, established institution)
(or, it could be an observatory (Leiden)?)
(Space Expo, near Leiden)

Suggestions for experts:
artists, designers, ufologists, scientists, visual culture experts

D I S C U S S I O N _ S E T T I N G

UFO TALKS/How to catch a UFO is a public roundtable discussion taking place on the National UFO day 2.6.2019
at Fotomuseum, Rotterdam.

The topic circles around UFO photography. The aim of this event is to discuss photography as cultural probe to map out current narratives and attitudes regarding this topic.

There will be expert speakers (artists, designers, ufologists etc) and a moderator to steer the discussion, however, visitors are encouraged to join too. The setting (see sketches) is designed to establish and to encourage dialogue between everyone, regardless of their status (moderator/expert/visitor). This way, different viewpoints can be expressed and discussed together.

Ideally, the discussion between experts and visitors would flow organically. However, the moderator will start with questions, such as

* what does UFO photography tell about us, and our society?
* what is the role, agency and function of UFO photography: material evidence or cultural probe to address (other) issues/topics?
* how is UFOs discussed in the public domain? How is this issue handled by general public compared to ufologists or visual culture experts?
* how meme culture serves as commentary to UFO phenomena, and how UFOs are talked about in public domain?
* what is the state of current UFO discourse (among experts or non-experts)?
* how conspiracy theories serves as commentary to UFO phenomena?
* what is the state of current UFO discourse (among experts or non-experts)?
* is there need for a platform to further discuss about this topic? Why/why not?

The goal is not to find out weather or not UFOs exists, but to examine the public discourse around this topic that manifests itself in visual culture (memes, news articles, photography, etc). UFOs are often considered as taboo and pseudoscience. How we talk about this topic tells a lot about us as a society.

Vital part of the event is how it is designed, how it's organised so that everyone can contribute to the discussion. The aim is to establish a horizontal setting. The idea is not to organise lectures or keynotes.

Maybe a workshop could work as well?

Quick poster sketch :-)

For these experiments, I was inspired by Ufologist Mark Owen's request to really think about my graduation project topic. He suggested that I'd have one project for the public, and one for myself. Clearly, UFOs are a taboo in society, and according to Owen, this topic is a huge taboo and people are stigmatised easily and there is a need to discuss these findings in a mature way. So, I created a poster and a setting for an event that would serve as a platform to talk about UFO photography, and talk about how we talk about it.